Method and system for controlling body-shop processing

ABSTRACT

A method and system to help control body-shop processing of vehicles, based on timing of interaction with a touch-screen display. In an example implementation, a body shop will be equipped with a computing system including a touch-screen display, with the computing system being configured to manage presentation on the display of graphical representations of job-cards for individual body-shop jobs, such as individual vehicles in for repair. With such an arrangement, body shop personnel could drag and drop job cards from one section to another to indicate transitions of jobs between body-shop processing steps. The computing system will then advantageously make use of data regarding the timing of those drag-and-drop operations as a basis to control body-shop processing, such as be predicting a processing duration of a job currently in process and taking action to modify processing of the job based on the predicted duration for instance.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a bypass continuation of International Patent Application No.PCT/EP2018/055637, filed Mar. 7, 2018, and designating the UnitedStates, which claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/456,152, filed Mar. 10, 2017.

BACKGROUND

Modern auto body shops (e.g., collision-repair shops) typically workwithin a defined process for handling vehicle repair jobs, employinghighly skilled technicians along the way to help restore vehicles totheir original state.

In an example process, where a vehicle has been involved in an accident,the owner first reports the accident and files a claim with theirinsurance company, and the owner then brings the vehicle to a body shopand provides an insurance claim number to facilitate further processing.After checking-in the vehicle and receiving general insurance companyapproval, body-shop technicians then conduct an initial evaluation,which could include disassembly and detailed analysis of the vehicle anddevelopment of a repair plan and cost estimate, and possibly reassemblyof the vehicle pending approval to proceed with repair work. Further,the body shop then requests, waits for, and receives insurance companyapproval for the repair work and cost. And upon receipt of insurancecompany approval, the body shop may then order any necessary parts andwait for delivery of the parts.

At a scheduled time, the body shop may then commence the repair work.For instance, technicians may again disassemble the vehicle if necessaryand may engage in any required body reshaping and installing of exteriorpanels and other finishing pieces. Further, technicians may then sealand prepare (e.g., prime) any new panels and other parts for paintingand may apply various coats of paint as necessary. In turn, techniciansmay then reassemble the vehicle and may then apply detailing, such asadding back or otherwise applying various moldings and other details ifappropriate.

Throughout this process, the body shop may also need to use the servicesof other vendors to help with certain aspects of the repair work (suchas glass repair and the like). Thus, at various stages, the vehiclecould be in the hands of an outside vendor, as a sublet. Further, atvarious stages in the process, body-shop personnel may also need to bein touch with the insurance company and/or owner to obtain approval forunexpected work and charges, or for other reasons.

Once repair of the vehicle is finished, technicians may then engage in aquality control check to validate the repair work and to ensure that thevehicle drives appropriately. And the body shop may then communicatewith owner to arrange for and provide delivery of the repaired vehicle.

Many variations on this body-shop process are possible as well.

Overview

In simplified terms, each vehicle subject to body-shop processing couldconstitute a respective “job” at the body shop. And at any given time, agiven body shop could have many jobs being processed concurrently invarious body-shop processing steps such as those noted above, with eachjob being handled by respective body-shop technicians or other personnelin various steps of the process.

Given the complexity of such an operation, a typical body shop couldbenefit from a system that helps manage its jobs, at least to providebody-shop personnel with a clear indication of which jobs are currentlyin which steps of the process and which jobs are being handled by whichpersonnel, and to provide convenient access to information about eachjob, such as identification of customer name, vehicle make/model,insurance company, and the like.

One such management system is a large magnetic board that is dividedinto sections, such as columns, representing each step of body-shopprocessing, with magnetic cards representing respective jobs beingpositioned in applicable sections on the board. Each such magnetic cardcould have printed on it various attributes of a given job, such as arepair order number, customer name, make/model of vehicle, check-indate, expected completion date, insurance company name, and expectedrevenue/payment from insurance company. Further, each card could belabeled with colored stickers or other markings to indicate whichtechnician is currently handling the job and/or to indicate variousother status information.

With this system, when a job is being processed in a particular step ofbody-shop processing, the job's magnetic card can be placed on the boardin the section representing that step. And when a job transitions fromone step of the process to another, the job's magnetic card can beremoved from its current section and placed on the section representingits new current step. Advantageously with this arrangement, bodyshop-personnel could conveniently view at a glance how many jobs arebeing processed in each step and perhaps which personnel are handingwhich jobs, thereby helping to manage processing of jobs.

Unfortunately, however, one piece of information that such a system doesnot account for is the timing of transition of jobs between the varioussteps of the process. While the magnetic board may allow a quickdetermination of where a job stands in the overall process, the magneticboard does not take into account the timing of when jobs move into andout of particular steps of the process and how long jobs are inparticular steps of the process. Further, the magnetic board does nottake into account such information as it may relate to variousattributes of individual jobs, such as the relationship between thetiming information and which personnel work on jobs in any given step,which make/model, customers, and/or insurance companies are involved,and what the expected revenue is of various jobs.

A system that takes such information into account in a technologicallyadvanced and efficient manner could prove quite useful, helping toimprove body-shop throughput and revenue and thus helping to enhance theoverall body-shop processing experience.

Disclosed herein is a method and system configured to help achieve thisgoal. In accordance with the disclosure, a body shop will be equippedwith a computing system including a large touch-screen display, with thecomputing system being configured to manage presentation on the displayof graphical representations of job-cards for individual body-shopprocessing jobs. With such an arrangement, body shop personnel coulddrag and drop job cards from one section to another to indicatetransitions of jobs between body-shop processing steps. And thecomputing system will advantageously make use of data regarding thetiming of those drag-and-drop operations as a basis to control body-shopprocessing.

In a representative implementation, for instance, the computing systemwill present on the touch-screen display various discrete displaysections, such as columns, labeled to represent respective body-shopprocessing steps. Further, for each job that is currently in process inthe body shop, the computing system will present on the display agraphical representation of an associated job card, with the job cardbeing positioned on the display within the display section thatrepresents the job's current processing step. And the computing systemwill present, within each job card, various attributes of the job, suchas repair order number, customer name, make/model of vehicle, in-date,expected out-date, insurance company, expected revenue, and, perhapsthrough color-coding or the like, identities of body-shop personnelhanding or responsible for the job and/or other status information aboutor attributes of the job.

In practice, the computing system could maintain in data storage arecord for each job currently in process, as well as a historical recordfor each completed job. Each such record could specify or otherwiseindicate various attributes of the job, including but not limited tothose noted above, for instance. Further, each such record could alsoinclude timing information related to processing of the job inparticular body-shop processing steps, such as an indication, per step,of when the job entered into the step and when the job moved on to anext step or was completed.

With the touch-screen display arrangement, the computing system coulddetermine and record this timing information based on data thatindicates dragging and dropping of job cards on the touch-screen fromone display section to another. In particular, when a job transitionsfrom one body-shop processing step to another (e.g., when one step iscompleted and the job moves on to a next step for handling), body-shoppersonnel could drag and drop the job's card on the touch-screen displayfrom the display section representing the job's old body-shop processingstep to the display section representing the job's new body-shopprocessing step. And the computing system could receive data indicatingthis dragging and dropping of a particular job card and couldaccordingly add to the job's data record a timestamp of the transition,thus indicating when (e.g., date and time) the job was finished beingprocessed in the old step and started to be processed in the new step,or was completed.

Based on this drag-drop timing information for many body-shop processingjobs handled over time, the computing system can thereby build up alarge amount of data that represents how long particular jobs were beingprocessed in particular body-shop processing steps. Further, because thedata records indicate attributes of each job, the computing system couldadvantageously use this data as a basis to correlate particular jobattributes or combinations of job attributes with particular durationsof processing in particular body-shop processing steps. For instance,based on this drag-drop timing data, the computing system couldestablish trend-data that indicates how long particular body-shopprocessing steps tend to take for jobs having particular combinations ofjob attributes.

In accordance with the present disclosure, the computing system couldthen make use of this established trend-data as a basis to control thebody-shop processing.

In an example implementation, for instance, by monitoring of the datarecords for jobs that are currently in process, the computing systemcould detect that a particular job that is in or entering a particularbody-shop processing step has a particular combination of jobattributes. And based on the trend-data established based on thedrag-drop timing information, the computing system could then predictthat a job having that particular combination of job attributes wouldlikely have a particular duration in the particular body-shop processingstep. Based on that prediction, the computing system could then takeaction to control the body-shop processing of the job.

For example, the computing system could determine that the job will takeor is taking longer than desired or expected (e.g., longer than apredefined threshold duration and/or threshold longer than therepresentative duration that the trend-data indicates, based on thedrag-drop timing information for a combination of the job's attributes),and the computing system could responsively (i) generate an alertindicating that the job will take or is taking longer than desired orexpected, (ii) direct a change of body-shop personnel handling the job,and/or (iii) direct a transfer of the job to another body shop.

Further, as another example, the computing system could determine basedon the trend-data how long a particular job having particular attributesis likely to take in some or all body-shop processing steps, and thecomputing system could thereby output a predicted completion date forbody-shop processing of the job, which could help body-shop personnelmanage the job and customer expectations.

Still further, as yet another example, the computing system coulddetermine an optimal total duration of body-shop processing of a givenjob based on the insurance revenue expected for the job. And given thatoptimal duration, and the computing system could predict based on thetrend-data, considering the job's combination of attributes, that thejob will take longer than desired in one or more body-shop processingsteps, and the computing system could responsively take actions likethose noted above to change processing of the job.

In addition, this entire arrangement could be expanded to help controlbody-shop processing for multiple body shops (e.g., a chain of bodyshops and/or multiple body shops that arrange to participate in a pooledmanagement service). Each such body could be equipped with a largetouch-screen display as described above and perhaps with a localprocessing system. And a centralized (e.g., cloud-based) processingsystem could be communicatively linked with each body shop'stouch-screen display and/or local processing system. With thisarrangement, the central processing system and/or various localprocessing systems working in concert could build up trend-data based ondrag-drop information as discussed above. Accounting for drag-dropinformation from multiple body shops, this trend-data could thus bequite useful, allowing for even further improved body-shop processing.

Accordingly, in one respect, disclosed is a method of controllingbody-shop processing, in a scenario where body-shop processing of eachof a plurality of vehicles includes a sequence of body-shop processingsteps, and where body-shop processing of each vehicle defines arespective body-shop processing job having a plurality of jobattributes.

In accordance with the disclosure, the method includes a computingsystem presenting, on a touch-screen display, a sequence of discretedisplay-sections representing, respectively, the sequence of body-shopprocessing steps, and, for each job currently being processed,presenting by the computing system on the touch-screen display, in thedisplay-section that represents a current body-shop processing step ofthe job, a job-card that represents the job and that depicts at leastsome of the attributes of the job.

Further, the method includes the computing system receiving drag-dropdata that represents instances of dragging and dropping on thetouch-screen display of individual ones of the job-cards from onedisplay-sections to another, where each instance of dragging anddropping of an individual job-card from one display-section to anotherindicates that body-shop processing of the job represented by theindividual job card has transitioned from the body-shop processing steprepresented by the display-section from which the job-card was draggedto the body-shop processing step represented by the display-section towhich the job-card was dragged.

Still further, the method includes the computing system determining,based on timing of the dragging and dropping represented by the receiveddrag-drop data, durations of processing of individual jobs in particularbody-shop processing steps, and the computing system establishing, basedon correlations between the determined processing durations and theattributes of the individual jobs, trend-data indicating representativeprocessing durations in particular body-shop processing steps forparticular combinations of job attributes.

And yet further, the method includes the computing system using theestablished trend-data as a basis to control body-shop processing of agiven job based on a determination by the computing system that thegiven job has a given combination of job attributes. For instance, themethod could include the computing system taking actions such as thosenoted above.

Further, disclosed is a computing system for controlling body-shopprocessing, where body-shop processing of each of a plurality ofvehicles includes a sequence of body-shop processing steps, and wherebody-shop processing of each vehicle defines a respective body-shopprocessing job having a plurality of job attributes. As disclosed, thecomputing system includes a touch-screen display, a processing unit,non-transitory data storage, and program instructions stored in thenon-transitory data storage and executable by the processing unit tocarry out operations for controlling body-shop processing of vehicles.

In line with the discussion above, the operations include causing to bepresented on the touch-screen display, a sequence of discretedisplay-sections representing, respectively, the sequence of body-shopprocessing steps, and, for each of a plurality of jobs currently beingprocessed, causing to be presented on the touch-screen display, in adisplay-section that represents a current body-shop processing step ofthe job, a job-card that represents the job and that depicts at leastsome of the attributes of the job.

Further, the operations include receiving drag-drop data that representsinstances of dragging and dropping on the touch-screen display ofindividual ones of the job-cards from one display-section to another,wherein each instance of dragging and dropping of an individual job-cardfrom one display-section to another that body-shop processing of the jobrepresented by the individual job card has transitioned from thebody-shop processing step represented by the display-section from whichthe job-card was dragged to the body-shop processing step represented bythe display-section to which the job-card was dragged.

Still further, the operations include determining, based on timing ofthe dragging and dropping represented by the received drag-drop data,durations of processing of individual jobs in particular body-shopprocessing steps, and establishing, based on correlations between thedetermined processing durations and the attributes of the individualjobs, trend-data indicating representative processing durations inparticular body-shop processing steps for particular combinations of jobattributes.

And yet further, the operations include using the established trend-dataas a basis to control body-shop processing of a given job based on adetermination that the given job has a given combination of jobattributes.

These as well as other aspects, advantages, and alternatives will becomeapparent to those of ordinary skill in the art by reading the followingdetailed description, with reference where appropriate to theaccompanying drawings. Further, it should be understood that thedescriptions provided in this overview and below are intended toillustrate the invention by way of example only and not by way oflimitation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flow chart depicting operations that can be carried out inaccordance with the disclosure.

FIG. 2 is simplified block diagram of an example computing systemoperable in accordance with the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A system in which features of the present disclosure can be implementedincludes a body shop that operates to apply a set of body-shopprocessing steps, such as those noted above for instance, to repairvehicles. Within the body shop is then a body-shop control system(computing system) configured as discussed above, including atouch-screen display and an associated processing unit, which could beintegrated or communicatively linked together. By way of example, thedisplay could be a 70 inch Newline TRUTOUCH interactive display orinteractive whiteboard, including a capacitive touch panel and on-boardcomputer, or could take any of a variety of other forms.

In a representative system, the body shop could have one suchtouch-screen display and associated processing unit, positioned in anarea that is accessible for viewing and use by body-shop personnel.Alternatively, the body shop could have multiple such touch-screendisplays and other associated terminals (e.g. some large, and some asdesktop terminals or handheld terminals (e.g., tablets or smartphones)),positioned conveniently in work areas and administrative offices forviewing and use, and each touch-screen display could have an associatedprocessing unit (e.g., personal computer), possibly coupled via acommunication network with a centralized server (e.g., network-basedcomputer server). Control operations in accordance with the presentdisclosure could then be carried out by any of the individual processingunits and/or the centralized server.

A cloud-based implementation could conveniently serve one or more bodyshops, such as a chain of body shops for instance. For example thecloud-based implementation could include three representative bodyshops, each including at least one touch-screen display and anassociated processing unit. The processing units of the various bodyshops could then sit as nodes on a packet-switched network, such as theInternet, which provides connectivity in turn with a centralized server.

With this cloud-based arrangement, like that discussed above, controloperations according to the present disclosure could be carried out byany the processing units and/or by the centralized server. Further, thecloud-based implementation could offer the advantage of establishingtrend-data based on drag-drop timing on touch-screen displays at variousshops, and allowing control actions such as directing the transfer ofjobs from shop to shop to help manage body-shop processing load.

In line with the discussion above, a computing system operating inaccordance with the present disclosure will present on the touch-screendisplay a sequence of display sections corresponding with a typicalsequence of body-shop processing steps, and the computing system willpresent within each display section a graphical job card respectivelyfor each job that is currently being processed in the associated step.As noted above, the display sections could be columns labeled perbody-shop processing step. Alternatively, the display sections could berows or could take various other forms. The display sections arepreferably discrete, in that there sections are visually separate fromeach other to help distinguish their associated the steps, even if thereis some extent of overlap or the like between them.

With an example graphical user interface that the computing system couldprovide on the touch-screen display, to help manage body-shop processingas discussed above, the computing system presents the display sectionsas columns with headers corresponding with the body-shop processingsteps discussed above. In particular, the example columns are labeledCheck-In Now, Check-In Later, Repair Plan, Waiting Parts, Body, Paint,Reassembly, Detail, Sublet, and Final QC, and Delivered. In practice,there could be more, fewer, or different columns representing otherbody-shop processing steps. Further, the computing system could allowhorizontal scrolling of the graphical user interface to reveal othercolumns representing other steps.

The computing system then presents within each column one or more jobcards each representing respectively a job that is currently in processin the associated body-processing step. Each such job card could be agraphical object, by way of example a rectangle, and could depict textand other graphics associated with the job represented by the card. Inpractice, the graphical user interface could allow each such job card tobe dragged and dropped on the display from one column to another,representing a transition of the associated job from one body-shopprocessing step to another. To facilitate such dragging and dropping,the computing system could graphically snap cards to individual columns,so that when a user drags a card from one column to another, the cardwould automatically align into the new column. Further, the computingsystem could allow vertical scrolling of the graphical user interface,or of individual columns, to reveal other displayed cards.

Optimally, the computer system could color-code each card, and/or thetext or other graphics on each card, in various was to convenientlyrepresent the status and/or various attributes of the associated job.For example, the computing system could color code the background ofeach card with a color representing a body-shop technician (e.g., leadtechnician) responsible for or otherwise currently assigned to work onthe job, so that a technician can conveniently identify their assignedjobs when looking at the display. Further, the computing system coulddisplay on each card one or more colored dots each representing a statusor characteristic of the job, which could allow technicians to quicklyascertain such information at a glance from the display.

In the example graphical user interface, the computing system coulddepict within each job card various attributes of the associated job,such as representative attributes that are deemed to be of particularinterest. For instance, the computing system could depict within eachjob card a repair order (RO) identification number, the customer name,the make/model of the vehicle, an IN date, an OUT date, the insurancecompany underwriting the repair, and the expected revenue (e.g.,insurance company payment) for the repair.

In addition, the graphical user interface could be configured to allow auser to access more information, such as additional attributes, ofindividual jobs. For instance, the graphical user interface could beconfigured to allow a user to double-tap a card or to select adesignated information button so as to access further information aboutthe job and to respond to such user input by presenting in a sidebarsection on the display (or in another manner, such as in a lightbox orpop-up) more specific information about the associated job. In addition,the computing system could allow authorized editing of the jobinformation, such as changing of job attributes, through this or anotherinterface.

In a representative implementation as further discussed above, thecomputing system could maintain in data storage a record of each jobcurrently in process in one or more body shops, as well as historicalrecords of jobs that have been processed through completion. Each suchjob record could specify or otherwise indicate for the associated jobvarious attributes of the job such as those noted above, for instance.In practice, the computing system could store these job records in arelational database structure or in any other form.

Much of the attribute data for a given job can result from user-entry ofdata into the computing system. For instance, when a vehicle initiallyenters the body-shop process, a technician or other body-shop personnelcould create a repair order and could enter basic information, andbody-shop personnel could update the job record upon determination offurther job attributes, such as insurance revenue, assigned technician,body-shop processing status, and the like. Further, certain jobattributes could be determined and recorded automatically or could beretrieved from another file system, database, or the like, through apush or pull process.

The computing system could thus use these stored job data records abasis to generate and present the job cards on the touch-screen displayas discussed above. In particular, the computing system could generateand present a job card for each job currently in process, displaying thejob card within the display section representing the associated job'scurrent body-shop processing step, and color-coding and/or otherwisepresenting as part of the job card various attributes of the associatedjob.

In accordance with the present disclosure, the computing system willoptimally further include, as part of each job's record, informationabout the timing of transition of the job into and out of body-shopprocessing steps. By way of example, the record for each job couldinclude respectively for each of a plurality of the body-shop processingsteps (i) an in-timestamp indicating the date and time of entry of thejob into the body-shop processing step and (ii) an out-timestampindicating the date and time of exit of the job from the body-shopprocessing step. For each body-shop processing step that the job has notyet entered, these timestamps could be null. But for each body-shopprocessing step in which the job has entered, the job record couldinclude an in-timestamp, and for each body-shop processing step fromwhich the job has exited, the job record could include an out-timestamp.

As discussed above, the computing system could automatically establishthis timestamp data for individual jobs based on dragging and droppingof the associated job cards between the display sections. In particular,when a job transitions in the body-shop process from one step toanother, body-shop personnel could simply drag and drop the job's cardon the touch-screen display from a display section representing thebody-shop processing step in which the vehicle was being processed tothe display section representing the body-shop processing step in whichthe vehicle is now being processed. And the computing system could thusreceive touch-screen input data representing that dragging and droppingaction and could responsively record one or more timestamps representingtiming of the associated transition between body-shop processing steps.In particular, the computing system could record the current date/timeas the job's out-timestamp for the old body-shop processing step, andthe computing system could record the current date/time as the job'sin-timestamp for the new body-shop processing step.

Further, once the computing system has determined a job's in-time andout-time for a given body-shop processing step, the computing systemcould compute and possibly record in the job's record a duration ofprocessing of the job in that body-shop processing step, as thedifference between the out-time and the in-time. Thus, ultimately foreach job currently in process and for each completed job, the computingsystem could have a record of how long processing of the job tookrespectively in each body-shop processing step applied to the job, andthe computing system could further have a record of the variousattributes of the job, such as those noted above.

In addition, for each step in which a given job was processed, thecomputing system could include in the job's record an indication of howloaded that body-shop processing step was, such as how many jobs were inqueue to be handled in that step at the time the given job was admittedinto the step (e.g., put in queue for processing in the step). This orother such load information could help to provide additional context forhow long it took to process the given job in the step.

In accordance with the present disclosure, the computing system couldthen make valuable use of this information as a basis to help controlbody-shop processing. In particular, the computing system couldregularly establish and maintain trend-data based at least on thedrag-drop timing information and job-attribute information, with thetrend-data correlating representative processing durations (e.g.,average durations, or typical duration ranges) in particular body-shopprocessing steps with particular combinations of job attributes. And thecomputing system could then use the established trend-data as a basis topredict and respond to bottlenecks in body-shop processing, to predictand report completion dates for individual jobs, to help optimizebody-shop processing considering expected revenue, and to take othervaluable actions.

In practice, the computing system could regularly evaluate the jobrecords for current and past jobs, conducting a statistical analysis tofind commonly occurring combinations of job attributes that tend to havesimilar processing durations. For instance, the computing system coulddetermine that jobs being handled by a particular technician andinvolving a particular make/model of vehicle are statistically likely totake a particular duration (e.g., within a range of duration) for bodywork and are statistically likely to take another particular duration(e.g., within a range of duration) for paint work. And the computingsystem could determine that jobs involving a particular make/model ofvehicle and a particular insurance company are statistically likely totake a particular duration (e.g., within a range) awaiting insuranceapproval. Other examples, as to other combinations of job attributes forinstance, are possible as well.

Further, the computing system could take into account additional factorsin establishing this trend data. For instance, the computing systemcould take into account the indicated level of load of a body-shopprocessing step at the time a job was admitted into that processingstep, as a weighting or scaling factor in establishing the trend databased on duration of processing of the job in that step. For example, ifa job having given attributes took a long time to be processed in agiven body-shop processing step, but the step was highly loaded at thetime the job was admitted into the step, the computing system might giveless weight to that long duration, as the long duration could be moreattributable to the load rather than the job attributes. The computingsystem could do this in various ways, such as by scaling down theindicated duration associated with the combination of job attributes.Other examples are possible as well.

The computing system could thus record this trend-data in data storageas indications of representative processing durations, per body-shopprocessing step, for particular combination of job attributes.Meanwhile, the computing system could then make use of this trend-dataas a basis to control body-shop processing of jobs having particularcombinations of attributes, based on the trend-data indications oflikely durations for jobs with those combinations of attributes.

FIG. 1 is a flow chart depicting operations that can be carried out inaccordance with an example method in line with the discussion above.This method can be carried out by a computing system as discussed aboveand/or by one or more other systems, to help control body-shopprocessing, in a scenario where body-shop processing of each of aplurality of vehicles includes a sequence of body-shop processing stepsand where body-shop processing of each vehicle defines a respectivebody-shop processing job. Although features of this method are shown inorder in FIG. 1, it will be understood that certain features could becarried out concurrently or in another order.

As shown in FIG. 1, at block 100, the example method includes thecomputing system presenting on a touch-screen display a sequence ofdiscrete display-sections representing, respectively, the sequence ofbody-shop processing steps, and, for each job currently being processed,the computing system presenting on the touch-screen display, in thedisplay-section that represents a current body-shop processing step ofthe job, a job-card that represents the job and that depicts at leastsome of the attributes of the job.

At block 102, the method further includes the computing system receivingdrag-drop data that represents instances of dragging and dropping on thetouch-screen display of individual ones of the job-cards amongdisplay-sections, where each instance of dragging and dropping of anindividual job-card from one display-section to another indicates thatbody-shop processing of the job represented by the individual job cardhas transitioned from the body-shop processing step represented by thedisplay-section from which the job-card was dragged to the body-shopprocessing step represented by the display-section to which the job-cardwas dragged.

At block 104, the method additionally includes the computing systemdetermining, based on timing of the dragging and dropping represented bythe received drag-drop data, durations of processing of individual jobsin particular body-shop processing steps. And at block 106, the methodincludes the computing system establishing, based on correlationsbetween the determined processing durations and the attributes of theindividual jobs, trend-data indicating representative processingdurations in particular body-shop processing steps for particularcombinations of job attributes.

At block 108, the method then further includes the computing systemusing the established trend-data as a basis to control body-shopprocessing of a given job based on a determination by the computingsystem that the given job has a given combination of job attributes.

In line with the discussion above, to facilitate implementing thismethod in practice, the computing system could maintain job-data thatindicates respectively for at least each job currently in process theattributes of the job, and the job card that the computing systempresents for each such job could depict on the display some or all ofthose attributes. Further, the computing system could record, in the jobdata (i.e., with or in association with the job data), timestamps basedon the dragging and dropping. Thus, as discussed above, the act of thecomputing system determining the durations of processing based on timingof the dragging and dropping could be based at least on the recordedtimestamps.

As discussed above, the act of the computing system using the drag-dropbased trend-data as a basis to control body-shop processing of the givenjob based on the determination that the given job has the givencombination of job attributes could then take various forms.

By way of example, the computing system could determine from the jobrecord data that the given job has the given combination of jobattributes and that the given job is in or entering a given body-shopprocessing step. (For instance, the computing system could make thisdetermination in response to a drag-drop action moving the job's cardinto the display section representing the given body-shop processingstep, or in response to regular monitoring or one or more othertriggers.) Further, the computing system could determine based on thetrend-data that the representative processing duration in the givenbody-shop processing step for the given combination of job attributes islonger than a predefined threshold duration.

Here, the predefined threshold duration could be a duration set throughadministrative configuration of the system to be a typically maximumtolerable duration in the given body-shop processing step, and/or thepredefined duration could be set based on one or more other factors,such as current load of work in process or the like.

The computing system's determination that the representative duration inthe body-shop processing step for the given combination of attributesthus amounts to a prediction (right or wrong) that the given job havingthat given combination of job attributes will take longer than thepredefined threshold duration in the body-shop processing step, whichcould undesirable from a system throughput and user experienceperspective. Given this, the computing system could thus take action tohelp control the body-shop processing of the job.

By way of example, the computing system could respond the determinationthat the representative processing duration in the given body-shopprocessing step for the given combination of job attributes is longerthan the predefined threshold duration by generating and outputtingvarious alerts or directives to control body-shop processing of the job.The computing system could provide such alerts or directives as pop-upmessages on the touch-screen display and/or on other terminals thatwould be viewed by administrative personnel, technicians, or others,possibly maintaining presentation of the alerts or directives pendinguser action to help ensure user receipt and response to the alerts ordirectives. Alternatively or additionally, the computing system couldprovide such alerts or directive in other forms.

As an example, in response to determining that the representativeprocessing duration in the given body-shop processing step for the givencombination of job attributes is longer than the predefined thresholdduration, the computing system could generate an alert signal thatindicates a bottleneck condition. For instance, the computing systemcould provide a flashing alert on the touch-screen display or otherterminal, indicating that the job at issue is likely to take longer thandesired. Notably, such an alert could thus be provided before the jobhas taken longer than desired, as the computing system would havegenerated the alert based on the prediction that the computing systemmade based on the trend-data.

As another example, in response to determining that the representativeprocessing duration in the given body-shop processing step for the givencombination of job attributes is longer than the predefined thresholdduration, the computing system could modify the body-shop processing ofthe given job.

For instance, the computing system could output a directive to body-shoppersonnel to change at least one technician working on the job. Here,for example, if the computing system has determined that the givencombination of job attributes is specific to a particular technician(e.g., one who is too slow working on particular make/model vehicles orwith other such job attribute(s)), the computing system could furtherdetermine from the trend-data that the combination of job attributeswith another particular technician substituted for the currentlyassigned technician would not have a representative duration exceedingthe threshold duration. Thus, the computing system could responsivelydirect that the job be reassigned to the other technician, to help avoida bottleneck or threshold long processing situation, again based on aprediction that such a situation will occur.

Alternatively or additionally, in a multiple-body-shop arrangement, thecomputing system could output a directive to body-shop personnel totransfer the job from the current body-shop to another body shop. Here,the analysis could be similar. If the computing system has determinedthat processing of the job in the current body shop, e.g., with the bodyshop's technicians, in a particular body-shop processing step, will takelonger than desired, but that processing of the job at another body shopwill not take so long (e.g., considering current loads at the bodyshops), the computing system could direct that the job be transferred tothe other body shop for handling. Again here, the computing system couldthus advantageously take such action based on a prediction, given thedrag-drop based trend data, that a problem situation will occur.

As another example, through an analysis similar to that described above,the computing system could determine that a given job has a givencombination of job attributes and has so far been in a given body-shopprocessing step for a current duration that is threshold longer than therepresentative processing duration in the given body-shop processingstep that the trend-data indicates for the given combination of jobattributes. Based on this determination, the computing system could thenresponsively take similar actions, such as generating an alertindicating a bottleneck condition and/or modifying body-shop processingof the job, such as directing a change in at least technician working onthe job and/or directing transfer of body-shop processing of the jobfrom a first body shop to a second body shop.

As yet another example use of the trend-data as a basis to controlbody-shop processing of a given job based on a determination that thegiven job has a given combination of job attributes, the computingsystem could take into account the expected revenue (as an example jobattribute) indicated for the job and could work to control processing ofthe job in an effort to achieve an optimal processing duration giventhat expected revenue.

For example, the computing system could determine the expected revenuethat the job record indicates for the job, and the computing systemcould determine based at least in part on that expected revenue adesired body-shop processing duration for the job, overall or in aparticular body-shop processing step. The determination of desiredduration based on revenue could be based on a mapping of revenue toduration, to help achieve optimal profitability or the like; further,the determination of desired duration could take into account otherfactors as well, such as how busy the body-shop is currently, howimportant the job is for other reasons, and so forth.

Given the determined desired duration, the computing system could thenuse the drag-drop based trend-data as a basis to determine one or morechanges to make in body-shop processing of the job to help achieve thedesired processing duration of the job. For instance, as the computingsystem could determine that the job has a particular combination ofattributes and could determine based on the trend data therepresentative duration in particular body-shop processing steps for ajob having that combination of attributes. And the computing systemcould then determine that that representative duration is longer thanthe desired duration, given the expected revenue. In response, thecomputing system could thus take actions such as those noted above,perhaps directing reassignment of the job to another technician or bodyshop or the like.

Further, the computing system could engage in other useful actions tohelp control and manage body-shop processing based on the timinginformation that comes from the dragging and dropping of job cards asdiscussed above. Without limitation, for example, the computing systemcould predict and output an expected completion date of a given job. Inparticular, when a vehicle first enters body-shop processing and/or atvarious stages in the body-shop processing of the vehicle, the computingsystem could determine the attributes of the job and could predict howlong it will take to complete a job having such attributes, in view ofthe representative processing durations of past jobs having similarattributes, and also taking into account characteristics of the bodyshop such as how loaded the body shop is currently. The computing systemcould then output an indication of the expected completion date, whichcould be presented as an attribute on the job card and could otherwisebe communicated help manage administrative and customer expectations andthe like. For instance, the computing system could output such apredicted completion date in response to an administrator's selecting ofa “Prediction Completion Date” button on the touch-screen display orother terminal. Further, the computing system could use this or othersuch information as a basis to generate and provide a directiveregarding whether to admit the job into body-shop processing or intoparticular steps of the process.

In addition, as discussed above, the computing system could carry outaspects of this process with respect to operations at multiple bodyshops. For instance, the computing system could present the sequence ofdiscrete display-sections and job-cards on touch-screen displays atmultiple body shops (presenting at each body shop job cardscorresponding with jobs being processed at that body shop), and thecomputing system could receive drag-drop data that represents instancesof the dragging and dropping at each of the multiple body shops. In thatcase, the computing system could then determine the durations orprocessing of jobs at each body shop, and the computing system couldestablish the trend-data based on body-shop processing at the multiplebody shops.

Further, with this arrangement, the computing system could use thetrend-data established based on body-shop processing at the multiplebody shops as a basis to predict a completion data when body-shopprocessing of the job at issue will be completed, and the computingsystem could output a report of the predicted completion date. Thus, thepredicted and reported overall duration body-shop processing of a givenjob having given attributes could be based on how long jobs havingsimilar attributes have taken to complete not just at the same body shopbut perhaps at multiple body shops. Also, a similar predictions andreporting could be carried out with respect to individual body-shopprocessing steps, perhaps as a basis to help control whether or when toadmit certain jobs into certain body-shop processing steps or the like.

Finally, FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of an example computingsystem, showing some of the components that such a system could includein order to carry out features such as those noted above. As shown inFIG. 2, the example computing system includes a touch-screen display200, a processing unit 202, and non-transitory data storage 204, all ofwhich could be communicatively integrated together to some extent and/orcould be linked together by a system bus, network, or other connectionmechanism 206.

As noted above, the touch-screen display 200 could provide a capacitivetouch-screen suitable for providing a graphical user interface asdiscussed above. The processing unit 202 could then comprise one or moregeneral purpose processors (e.g., microprocessors) and/or one or morespecial purpose processors (e.g., application specific integratedcircuits). And the data storage 204 could comprise one or more volatileand/or non-volatile storage components, such as optical, magnetic,and/or flash storage.

As shown, the data storage could then include, in operation, job records208, trend data 210, and program instructions 212. The job records couldinclude data records for each job currently in being subject tobody-shop processing as well as historical data for each completed job,including attributes of each job and including drag-drop timing data perjob as discussed above. The trend data 210 could then comprise dataderived by the computing system based on the job data, correlatingvarious combinations of job attributes with representative processingdurations in particular body-shop processing steps or combinations ofsuch steps.

And the program instructions 212 could then be machine languageinstructions or the like, executable by the processing unit 202 to carryout operations such as those described above for controlling body-shopprocessing.

For instance, the operations could include causing the computing systemto present (e.g., outputting for presentation) on the touch-screendisplay, a sequence of discrete display-sections representing,respectively, the sequence of body-shop processing steps, and, for eachof a plurality of jobs currently being processed, causing the computingsystem to present on the touch-screen display, in a display-section thatrepresents a current body-shop processing step of the job, a job-cardthat represents the job and that depicts at least some of the attributesof the job.

Further, the operations could include receiving drag-drop data thatrepresents instances of dragging and dropping on the touch-screendisplay of individual ones of the job-cards among display-sections,where each instance of dragging and dropping of an individual job-cardfrom one display-section to another that body-shop processing of the jobrepresented by the individual job card has transitioned from thebody-shop processing step represented by the display-section from whichthe job-card was dragged to the body-shop processing step represented bythe display-section to which the job-card was dragged.

Yet further, the operations could include determining, based on timingof the dragging and dropping represented by the received drag-drop data,durations of processing of individual jobs in particular body-shopprocessing steps, and establishing, based on correlations between thedetermined processing durations and the attributes of the individualjobs, the trend-data indicating representative processing durations inparticular body-shop processing steps for particular combinations of jobattributes.

And yet further, the operations could include using the establishedtrend-data as a basis to control body-shop processing of a given jobbased on a determination that the given job has a given combination ofjob attributes, as with the examples discussed above for instance.

Exemplary embodiments have been described above. Those skilled in theart will understand, however, that changes and modifications may be madeto these embodiments without departing from the true scope and spirit ofthe invention.

We claim:
 1. A computing system for controlling body-shop processing,wherein body-shop processing of each of a plurality of vehicles includesa sequence of body-shop processing steps, and wherein body-shopprocessing of each vehicle defines a respective body-shop processing job(“job”) having a plurality of job attributes, the computing systemcomprising: a processing unit; non-transitory data storage; and programinstructions stored in the non-transitory data storage and executable bythe processing unit to carry out operations for controlling body-shopprocessing of vehicles, wherein the operations include receivingdrag-drop data that represents instances of dragging and dropping, amongdiscrete display-sections that are presented on a display, of individualjob-cards that are presented on the display, wherein thedisplay-sections represent the sequence of body-shop processing steps,and wherein each job-card represents a respective job being processedand depicts at least some of the attributes of the job, wherein eachinstance of dragging and dropping of an individual job-card from onedisplay-section to another indicates that body-shop processing of thejob represented by the individual job card has transitioned from thebody-shop processing step represented by the display-section from whichthe job-card was dragged to the body-shop processing step represented bythe display-section to which the job-card was dragged, wherein theoperations further include determining, based on timing of the draggingand dropping represented by the received drag-drop data, durations ofprocessing of individual jobs in particular body-shop processing steps,and establishing, based on correlations between the determinedprocessing durations and the attributes of the individual jobs,trend-data indicating representative processing durations in particularbody-shop processing steps for particular combinations of jobattributes, and wherein the operations further include using theestablished trend-data as a basis to control body-shop processing of agiven job based on a determination that the given job has a givencombination of job attributes.
 2. The computing system of claim 1,wherein the operations further include: maintaining, in thenon-transitory data storage, job-data that indicates respectively for atleast each job currently in process the attributes of the job; andrecording, in the job-data, timestamps based on the dragging anddropping, wherein determining the durations of processing based ontiming of the dragging and dropping is based at least on the recordedtimestamps.
 3. The computing system of claim 1, wherein using thetrend-data as a basis to control body-shop processing of the given jobbased on the determination that the given job has the given combinationof job attributes comprises: determining that the given job has thegiven combination of job attributes and is in or entering a givenbody-shop processing step; determining based on the trend-data that therepresentative processing duration in the given body-shop processingstep for the given combination of job attributes is longer than apredefined threshold duration; and responsive to at least thedetermining that the representative processing duration in the givenbody-shop processing step for the given combination of job attributes islonger than the predefined threshold duration, generating an alertsignal indicating a bottleneck condition.
 4. The computing system ofclaim 1, wherein using the trend-data as a basis to control body-shopprocessing of the given job based on the determination that the givenjob has the given combination of job attributes comprises: determiningthat the given job has the given combination of job attributes and is inor entering a given body-shop processing step; determining based on thetrend-data that the representative processing duration in the givenbody-shop processing step for the given combination of job attributes islonger than a predefined threshold duration; and responsive todetermining that the representative processing duration in the givenbody-shop processing step for the given combination of job attributes islonger than the predefined threshold duration, modifying body-shopprocessing of the given job.
 5. The computing system of claim 1, whereinthe operations further include: using the trend-data as a basis topredict a completion date when body-shop processing of the job will becompleted; and outputting a report of the predicted completion date. 6.The computing system of claim 1, wherein using the trend-data as a basisto control body-shop processing of the given job based on thedetermination that the given job has the given combination of jobattributes comprises: determining that the given job has the givencombination of job attributes; determining a current duration that thegiven job has been in a given body-shop processing step; determiningthat the current duration is at least threshold longer than therepresentative processing duration in the given body-shop processingstep that the trend-data indicates for the given combination of jobattributes; and responsive to determining that the current duration isat least threshold longer than the representative processing duration inthe given body-shop processing step that the trend-data indicates forthe given combination of job attributes, modifying body-shop processingof the given job.
 7. The computing system of claim 1, wherein theattributes of each job include an expected-revenue value for the job,and wherein using the trend-data as a basis to control body-shopprocessing of a given job based on a determination that the given jobhas a given combination of job attributes comprises: based at least inpart on the expected-revenue value of the given job, determining adesired processing duration for the given job; and using the trend-dataas a basis to determine one or more changes to make in body-shopprocessing of the given job that would help achieve the desiredprocessing duration of the given job.
 8. The computing system of claim1, wherein the display is a touch-screen display.
 9. Non-transitory datastorage having stored thereon instructions executable by a processingunit to carry out operations for controlling body-shop processing ofvehicles, wherein body-shop processing of each of a plurality ofvehicles includes a sequence of body-shop processing steps, and whereinbody-shop processing of each vehicle defines a respective body-shopprocessing job (“job”) having a plurality of job attributes, theoperations comprising: receiving drag-drop data that representsinstances of dragging and dropping, among discrete display-sections thatare presented on a display, of individual job-cards that are presentedon the display, wherein the display-sections represent the sequence ofbody-shop processing steps, wherein each job-card represents arespective job being processed and depicts at least some of theattributes of the job, and wherein each instance of dragging anddropping of an individual job-card from one display-section to anotherindicates that body-shop processing of the job represented by theindividual job card has transitioned from the body-shop processing steprepresented by the display-section from which the job-card was draggedto the body-shop processing step represented by the display-section towhich the job-card was dragged; determining, based on timing of thedragging and dropping represented by the received drag-drop data,durations of processing of individual jobs in particular body-shopprocessing steps, and establishing, based on correlations between thedetermined processing durations and the attributes of the individualjobs, trend-data indicating representative processing durations inparticular body-shop processing steps for particular combinations of jobattributes; and using the established trend-data as a basis to controlbody-shop processing of a given job based on a determination that thegiven job has a given combination of job attributes.
 10. Thenon-transitory data storage of claim 9, wherein the operations furthercomprise maintaining job-data that indicates respectively for at leasteach job currently in process the attributes of the job, and wherein theoperations further comprise recording, in the job-data, timestamps basedon the dragging and dropping, wherein determining the durations ofprocessing based on timing of the dragging and dropping is based atleast on the recorded timestamps.
 11. The non-transitory data storage ofclaim 9, wherein using the trend-data as a basis to control body-shopprocessing of the given job based on the determination that the givenjob has the given combination of job attributes comprises: determiningthat the given job has the given combination of job attributes and is inor entering a given body-shop processing step; determining based on thetrend-data that the representative processing duration in the givenbody-shop processing step for the given combination of job attributes islonger than a predefined threshold duration; and responsive to at leastthe determining that the representative processing duration in the givenbody-shop processing step for the given combination of job attributes islonger than the predefined threshold duration, generating an alertsignal indicating a bottleneck condition.
 12. The non-transitory datastorage of claim 9, wherein using the trend-data as a basis to controlbody-shop processing of the given job based on the determination thatthe given job has the given combination of job attributes comprises:determining that the given job has the given combination of jobattributes and is in or entering a given body-shop processing step;determining based on the trend-data that the representative processingduration in the given body-shop processing step for the givencombination of job attributes is longer than a predefined thresholdduration; responsive to at least the determining that the representativeprocessing duration in the given body-shop processing step for the givencombination of job attributes is longer than the predefined thresholdduration, modifying body-shop processing of the given job.
 13. Thenon-transitory data storage of claim 9, wherein using the trend-data asa basis to control body-shop processing of the given job based on thedetermination that the given job has the given combination of jobattributes comprises: determining that the given job has the givencombination of job attributes; determining a current duration that thegiven job has been in a given body-shop processing step; determiningthat the current duration is at least threshold longer than therepresentative processing duration in the given body-shop processingstep that the trend-data indicates for the given combination of jobattributes; and responsive to at least the determining that the currentduration is at least threshold longer than the representative processingduration in the given body-shop processing step that the trend-dataindicates for the given combination of job attributes, taking at leastone action selected from the group consisting of (i) modifying body-shopprocessing of the given job and (ii) generating an alert indicating abottleneck condition.
 14. The non-transitory data storage of claim 9,wherein the operations further comprise: using the trend-data as a basisto predict a completion date when body-shop processing of the job willbe completed; and outputting a report of the predicted completion date.15. The non-transitory data storage of claim 9, wherein the attributesof each job include an expected-revenue value for the job, and whereinusing the trend-data as a basis to control body-shop processing of thegiven job based on the determination that the given job has the givencombination of job attributes comprises: based at least in part on theexpected-revenue value of the given job, determining a desiredprocessing duration for the given job; and using the trend-data as abasis to determine one or more changes to make in body-shop processingof the given job that would help achieve the desired processing durationof the given job.
 16. The non-transitory data storage of claim 9,wherein the operations further comprise color-coding each job-card onthe display, based on at least which of a plurality of technicians isassigned to work on the job represented by the job-card.
 17. Thenon-transitory data storage of claim 9, further comprising carrying outthe presenting and receiving with displays at multiple body shops,wherein the determining of durations of processing and establishing ofthe trend-data is based on body-shop processing at the multiple bodyshops.
 18. The non-transitory data storage of claim 9, wherein thedisplay is a touch-screen display.
 19. A method of controlling body-shopprocessing, wherein body-shop processing of each of a plurality ofvehicles includes a sequence of body-shop processing steps, and whereinbody-shop processing of each vehicle defines a respective body-shopprocessing job (“job”) having a plurality of job attributes, the methodcomprising: receiving into a computing system drag-drop data thatrepresents instances of dragging and dropping, among discretedisplay-sections that are presented on a display, of individualjob-cards that are presented on the display, wherein thedisplay-sections represent the sequence of body-shop processing steps,and wherein each job-card represents a respective job being processedand depicts at least some of the attributes of the job, and wherein eachinstance of dragging and dropping of an individual job-card from onedisplay-section to another indicates that body-shop processing of thejob represented by the individual job card has transitioned from thebody-shop processing step represented by the display-section from whichthe job-card was dragged to the body-shop processing step represented bythe display-section to which the job-card was dragged; determining bythe computing system, based on timing of the dragging and droppingrepresented by the received drag-drop data, durations of processing ofindividual jobs in particular body-shop processing steps, andestablishing by the computing system, based on correlations between thedetermined processing durations and the attributes of the individualjobs, trend-data indicating representative processing durations inparticular body-shop processing steps for particular combinations of jobattributes; and using by the computing system the established trend-dataas a basis to control body-shop processing of a given job based on adetermination by the computing system that the given job has a givencombination of job attributes.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein thedisplay is a touch-screen display.